Diversity hiring in the FAA
Diversity hiring is indeed a thing in the FAA. What it had to do with the collision over the Potomac – if anything – is unknown at present. But the following may have been factors:
The FAA has already stated that there weren’t the usual number of controllers on duty that night. In fact:
That left one air traffic controller (ATC) to handle both helicopters and planes, a job that two controllers typically handled.
Not only is the workload doubled for the controller, but the ATC would also use different radio frequencies to talk to the helicopter and the plane. “While the controller is communicating with pilots of the helicopter and the jet, the two sets of pilots may not be able to hear each other,” reports the New York Times.
The staffing shortages are nothing new at Reagan or any other air traffic control tower in the U.S. The job is brutal, with a workload of up to ten hours a day, six days a week. Turnover is high.
The tower at Reagan National is roughly 30% understaffed. The National Air Traffic Controllers Association union said airports lost air traffic control staffing nationwide by 9% from 2011 to 2023, while flights increased during that same time period.
Meanwhile, the number of flights has increased, in part because Congress members wanted more convenient flights for themselves, although they were aware that it’s a crowded air corridor. In fact, the commercial flight involved in the crash – although almost certainly not responsible for it – was lobbied for by Kansas Senator Moran, and instituted one year ago:
“I know that flight, I’ve flown it many times myself,” Moran said in a press conference on Wednesday night. “I lobbied American Airlines to begin having a direct nonstop flight service to DCA. That flight has been in existence for about a year… this is a very personal circumstance as well as an official response.”
And of course the area has a great many helicopters as well.
Plus this, which is where DEI might come in [emphasis mine]:
Years before Wednesday’s fatal collision between a military helicopter and a passenger jet approaching Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, critics warned that the Obama and Biden administrations had jeopardized safety by prioritizing diversity, equity and inclusion at the Federal Aviation Administration. …
Critics warned that the FAA’s focus on DEI diverted time and resources from air travel safety. It hobbled the agency as it grappled with air traffic controller shortages, antiquated monitoring equipment and an increase in near misses on crowded airport runways, they said. …
Air safety concerns prompted 11 Republican attorneys general to write to FAA Administrator Michael Whitaker last year to question the administration’s hiring practices and priorities. …
Diversity goals at the FAA ramped up during the Obama administration, were largely dropped under Mr. Trump’s first term and resumed under President Biden.
During the Obama and Biden administrations, the FAA prioritized hiring more minorities and those with disabilities for key positions, including those in air traffic control. …
In 2013, the FAA started using a “biographical assessment” to increase the hiring of preferred minority racial groups at air traffic control centers. The assessment asked applicants about their participation in school sports and the age at which they started earning money.
The assessment disqualified more experienced, qualified applicants, many of whom were Air Traffic Collegiate Training graduates or had other critical experience, such as a pilot’s license.
More than 3,000 rejected applicants filed a lawsuit claiming discrimination. The FAA dropped the biographical assessment in 2018 after Congress enacted a law banning its use. …
As late as last year, the FAA was recruiting those with targeted disabilities, including “hearing, vision, missing extremities, partial paralysis, complete paralysis, epilepsy, severe intellectual disability, psychiatric disability and dwarfism.”
The Democrats and the press are focusing – of course – on Trump’s remarks about diversity hiring. As I said yesterday, I think he should have kept his mouth shut on that until strong evidence exists that it’s a factor. Or, if he had to mention it, explain in a logical manner how DEI hiring has helped create a shortage of air controllers.
Why should anyone care about the race of an air controller? Doesn’t everyone simple want the best people, whether white or black or Hispanic or whatever? Apparently not.
Should a traffic controller have a hearing or vision disability? Or an intellectual disability, severe or not? Sorry, but I don’t think so. And what is this bit about “psychiatric disability”? The only “psychiatric disability” I can think of offhand that might be okay in an air traffic controller would be Asperger’s – and even then, if the person has been labeled “disabled” because of it, that does’t sound like the intensely stressful job of an air traffic controller would be a good fit.
ADDENDUM:
Meanwhile, J. D. Vance does a better job of explaining:
ADDENDUM II:
More here on possible causes of the crash.
“Not only is the workload doubled for the controller, but the ATC would also use different radio frequencies to talk to the helicopter and the plane. “While the controller is communicating with pilots of the helicopter and the jet, the two sets of pilots may not be able to hear each other,” reports the New York Times.
If there were two different controllers for the helicopters and the jets, then the helicopter and jet pilots still wouldn’t be able to hear each other, because different frequencies would be used…otherwise, the value of having two different controllers would be lost and communications would be very difficult with two sets of pilots and controllers constantly ‘stepping on’ one another.
The main advantage of a separate controller for the helicopters would seem to be that he could monitor them more closely and advise them of any altitude deviations….but depending on what equipment is installed in the aircraft, altitude is reported electronicaly only in 100 foot or 25 foot increments, and I believe (but am not certain) that the FAA radar displays show only the 100 foot version.
As I understand it, a 100 foot display would have shown the helicopter was above its maximum permitted altitude by at least that much.
“The only ‘psychiatric disability’ I can think of offhand that might be okay in an air traffic controller would be Asperger’s”
I know two people with high-functioning Asperger’s, and their ability to focus is spooky. Spitballing, it might even be an asset.
An excellent rundown on this issue.
It may or may not be involved in the DCA collision, but tit needs to be exposed.
Only an ideologue/intellectual could believe that all people are equally qualified to do certain kinds of work.
Especially work that involves directing the movements around the sky of fast-moving aluminum tubes full of people.
Shall we insist on hiring poly-sci majors with the right ethnic background to design highway bridges? Or single amputees to work as firemen? Or people who flunked Biology to be doctors?
Life isn’t fair. People are born with abilities and talents that are different. Our job, as we go through life, is to discover and make the most of those abilities and talents.
Most of us will not achieve what we might have wanted to. But we are all better for having competed to do our best. It does nothing for us individually, or as a society, to put people in jobs where they don’t have the talent and ability. Only ideologues who want to create an egalitarian society believe DEI has merit.
History has shown that egalitarian societies don’t work and can only be implemented through tyranny. And that is why DEI must be opposed at every turn.
Here is the FAA page talking about the CTI programs. It seems like a good way to fill up the pipeline with candidates as well as being able to cull out those who will not succeed at the job.
https://www.faa.gov/jobs/students/schools
I was looking to see if the FAA school was delayed due to covid and it was. This is a report about the status of training ATC. It is just a page long. And yes, they canceled some classes and covid impacted the staffing of the towers.
https://www.oversight.gov/reports/audit/faa-faces-controller-staffing-challenges-air-traffic-operations-return-pre-pandemic
J.J. – If I remember correctly, the Soviet Union would test their youth and based on the physical and intellectual testing, the child had their future determined.
If you were athletic, then you were trained to succeed at the Olympics. High IQ, then you went to the Academies to become a doctor, scientist, or whatever they needed. Not so smart, then it was trade school for you.
The Democrats – get this – tried to get me to believe that J.D. Vance is “weird”.
Kate…yes, if the quantization works as ‘report any altitude within 50 feet high or low as the nearest 100 foot altitude’, then the display would have shown 200 feet for the helicopter until it was at 250, then shown 300, and the controller could have spoken sharply to the pilot about his altitude IF he wasn’t busy at the moment talking to another helicopter further out, or otherwise distracted. The fundamental assumption of this helicopter route seems to be that the copter pilots can be counted on to not exceed the charted maximum altitudes.
Only an ideologue/intellectual could believe that all people are equally qualified to do certain kinds of work.
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What they believe is that they should be allocators of opportunity, free to allocate opportunity to their pets, and free to injure the interests of people they despise and regard as social enemies. They do not care who is or is not skilled.
“What they believe is that they should be allocators of opportunity, free to allocate opportunity to their pets, and free to injure the interests of people they despise and regard as social enemies. They do not care who is or is not skilled.”
It strikes me that jobs are increasingly viewed as sinecures…something that is given to someone to reward them with money and status. The idea that jobs actually involve work that actually needs to be done seems to play less and less of a part.
During a search for something legal to do – I tried Day Trading for awhile, with Datek online. Like three years+ (?), but not straight – and traded in penny stocks. Penny stocks since I liked that “Tick” – seems the tick was 1/16th (0.0625 ??) when I was doing it in mid to late nineties…maybe even a little during 2000-03 (?). Had it all down mathematically back then, but mostly forget now. Penny stocks were naturally cheap enough for me to afford 100-500 shares. Believe one tick up on a 100 shares was like $6.25 ‘n $31.25 for 500 shares. Ticks were a biggie for me—either way up or down, and you needed to pay attention because penny stocks can jump 10 ticks up or down pretty quickly.
Absolutely maddening for 6.5 hours—on days I felt like it! Can’t even imagine what 10+ hours of watching a monitor (or 2 ?!) six days a week is like at a busy airport…
It strikes me that jobs are increasingly viewed as sinecures…something that is given to someone to reward them with money and status. The idea that jobs actually involve work that actually needs to be done seems to play less and less of a part.
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You’ll notice the promoters of DEI tend to be in occupations with weak operational measures of competence and what the operators of DEI systems do is literally make-work.
I don’t believe it is a display issue. It is a reporting issue.
“All airspace. Unless otherwise authorized or directed by ATC, and except as provided in paragraph (e)(1) of this section, no person may operate an aircraft in the airspace described in paragraphs (b)(1) through (5) of this section, unless that aircraft is equipped with an operable coded radar beacon transponder having either Mode A 4096 code capability, replying to Mode A interrogations with the code specified by ATC, or a Mode S capability, replying to Mode A interrogations with the code specified by ATC and Mode S interrogations in accordance with the applicable provisions specified in TSO-C112, and that aircraft is equipped with automatic pressure altitude reporting equipment having a Mode C capability that automatically replies to Mode C interrogations by transmitting pressure altitude information in 100-foot increments. The requirements of this paragraph (b) apply to…”
There’s also the possibility of DEI impacting the quality of the helicopter pilots.
Even while I was on active duty (Naval Aviation Maintenance) 20+ years ago, that was a thing. It was commonly known that women and minorities received preferential treatment because they were “underrepresented” in the officer ranks and especially as pilots. At that time, women couldn’t be combat pilots so there tended to be a bunch of them flying helicopters and cargo planes.
“Diversity” over quality is even worse now from what I understand.
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/the-national-gay-pilots-association_the-us-navy-made-history-last-week-with-activity-6796519345699729408-vfhb
Priorities
This accident is reminiscent of the crash of PSA (different PSA) flight 182 in San Diego. In that instance there was small plane traffic in the vicinity of the airliner as it was on final approach to Lindbergh Field, which the air traffic controllers reported to the PSA crew. Unfortunately, the crew mistakenly thought that the traffic was behind them, when it was just in front and underneath them, and could not be seen.
I’ve often thought that plane crashes don’t happen because one thing goes wrong, they happen because multiple things go wrong with too little time to recover. And that would include complacency and loss of situational awareness.
The FAA will now restrict helicopter traffic in the vicinity of Reagan National.
https://redstate.com/terichristoph/2025/01/31/faa-shuts-down-helo-corridor-near-dca-n2185056
My son is training to be a commercial helicopter pilot and so we talk quite a bit about the training. Flying a helicopter is hard. It requires much more focus and coordination than flying a plane. He mentioned that flying at night was particularly difficult and disorienting.
I think the videos that show the helicopter flying right into the plane are misleading. In the videos it appears that everything is happening in almost slow motion and you can’t believe that such a thing could happen. But the perspective of the helicopter pilot is quite different and things are happening much more quickly. It seems plausible to me from what I understand of the visibility of flying a helicopter at night, that the helicopter pilot was indeed focused on another plane and never saw the plane that he crashed into.
I don’t know the purpose of the helicopter flight. I don’t know who was actually flying the helicopter at the time of the crash. I read that the co-pilot was being evaluated and that she had 500 hours of flight time. I don’t know how much of that time was flying at night but it was most likely only a small fraction of the 500 hours.
Obviously we don’t yet know all the details but despite the very disturbing video, I can understand how the accident could have happened.
@DAVID FOSTER:t strikes me that jobs are increasingly viewed as sinecures…something that is given to someone to reward them with money and status. The idea that jobs actually involve work that actually needs to be done seems to play less and less of a part.
I think it’s sometimes this, but what comes out of academia is that “qualifications” are just a way for a group with power (white males) to exclude people not like them. Fundamentally they think anybody can do anything, and that if you are given the label “civil engineer” or “air traffic controller” and you assume the position then you really ARE one. “Being qualified” just means “acting the way white males want you to act”, and has no real bearing on if you can do the job.
They don’t think there is anything “real” about being able to do the job: if people treat you as though you are performing the job then you really are, and if they treat you as though you are not performing the job they are punishing you for not acting or being white. If your bridge collapses or your helicopter hits an airplane, that’s just circumstance: if they fire you for it and you’re not a white male, they fired you for not being a white male.